Staff outline technical amendments to Centennial’s Land Development Code; council offers clarifying questions

City staff presented a package of technical, non-substantive amendments to Centennial’s Land Development Code (LDC) at the Feb. 17 study session and asked the council for high-level guidance before drafting an ordinance.

Jenna Campbell, the staff lead, told the council the edits are intended to improve clarity, correct cross-references and align terms with current practice. “There won't be any decisions made tonight,” Campbell said, adding that staff will present formal recommendations to the Planning and Zoning Commission and later return with an ordinance for a council public hearing.

Planner Lauren Gleason detailed procedural fixes: removing two previously repealed plans from Appendix C (the I‑25 and Arapahoe Urban Center plans), clarifying when public notice is required for sub-area plans, comprehensive-plan amendments and right-of-way vacations, and correcting an incorrect building-code chapter reference that is cited in the LDC’s airport-influence-area construction requirements. Gleason also said the code is missing a zone reference for utility screening in open-space (OSR) districts and that planned-unit development (PUD) regulating-plan processes should be added to tables that list administrative and public-hearing development orders.

“Some provisions were simply pointing to the wrong place,” Gleason said, explaining the changes are intended to make the code easier to use and to reduce conflicts between the LDC and the building code.

Staff also proposed a new land-use category described as transportation services to cover parking or storage of fleet vehicles—examples included school buses, transit vehicles or a U‑Haul fleet—where those uses currently don’t fit neatly into existing categories. Gleason said the new category would allow staff to apply tailored standards for screening, organization and related site requirements instead of treating fleet parking as general outdoor storage.

Katie Gannap reviewed signage and design clarifications. She said staff would propose requiring removal of permanent tenant signage on vacant spaces within 30 days (a measure she emphasized would not target ordinary for-lease or for-sale signs). Staff also proposed clarifying how perforated vinyl window signs count toward window-transparency limits, standardizing temporary-sign duration rules so applicants cannot extend time by switching materials, and defining whether monument-sign allowances apply per district or per parcel.

Gannap described proposed design edits to better align window-facade requirements with building types, to reference ADA guidance rather than hard-coded parking-space widths, to remove an obsolete finished-floor-height reference for certain townhomes, and to clarify when rooftop equipment screening is required from the right-of-way.

Council members asked a series of clarifying questions. Councilmember Dwiggins confirmed the 30-day removal rule was meant to target permanent signs on vacant tenant spaces rather than ordinary for-lease signs; staff agreed. Councilmember Sandhu asked why Centennial’s code lists a 12-foot parking-space width when ADA guidance suggests different dimensions; staff said the code can lag outside standards and that the amendment could instruct the code to reference ADA requirements rather than embed a numeric width that would require frequent updates. Mayor Pro Tem Tharpe pressed which utilities were meant by a “utility screening” reference; staff said that item pertains to open-space zone references and the code will be corrected to add the OSR reference.

Staff emphasized these are technical edits intended mainly to fix errors and add clarifying definitions; they said more substantial items remain limited to specific, enumerated proposals such as the transportation-services use. No formal motions or votes were taken; staff will present a draft ordinance after the Planning and Zoning Commission reviews the changes.